Wikipedia - A call to arms

An article from The Ergonomist in January 2013

For many, Wikipedia is the destination of choice when we are presented with an unfamiliar term or reference. In the right situation, it’s a very useful tool. Well-developed entries contain a succinct definition and description along with a list of more traditional peer-reviewed references for more information.

For others, notably those that have received formal deliverables that reference Wikipedia directly, it can be a source of frustration. One of Wikipedia’s greatest strengths, the fact that anyone can add to it, is also one of its weaknesses. The reliability and the quality of the entries can be questionable. Recent cases in the press highlight this issue; a 25 year-old American student was falsely identified as the cofounder of the Independent newspaper in the Leveson enquiry report.

When the former editor of encyclopaedia Britannica read the entry “encyclopaedia” he gave it 5 out of 10, stating that it left him with the “impression that it was written by someone who had no previous knowledge of the subject and who, once he got into it, found it did not interest him very much.” Likewise, when the editor of Vogue was asked to look at the entry on ‘Haute couture’ she found it “broadly speaking inaccurate and unclear”, with “few correct facts” and “every value judgement wrong”. Zero out of ten.  Not that it matters too much because chances are, by the time you read this, the entries will have changed.

Love it or hate it, with around 600 million page views per day, it is safe to say that Wikipedia will be around for the foreseeable future. Furthermore, at the time of writing, Wikipedia entries are the ‘top hit’ for Google searches on ‘ergonomics’ and ‘human factors’. With this in mind, as a society, the obvious question is, should we be doing more to participate in the upkeep of the entries that are relevant to our discipline?

If your answer to the previous question was yes, and you are interested in increasing the accuracy and the quality of the entries on the Wikipedia site, we are proposing a session at the next IEHF conference this April, in Cambridge, to make some changes. So please come along, armed with your laptop, tablet or smart phone, and help improve the quality of the relevant entries.

see article http://www.sociotechnic.com/articles/theergonomist_Jan2013.pdf